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Turbulence and Low-Level Clouds in Atmospheric GCMs (of All Shapes and Sizes)

Submitted by potemkin on Mon, 04/01/2013 - 5:05pm

Turbulent eddies exist in the atmosphere on a variety of length scales. Due to the principle role they play in the formation/evolution of boundary layer clouds, turbulence, therefore, has large effects on the global radiation budget as well as important processes such as the aerosol indirect effect. As computational power continues to increase, atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs) now come in a variety of flavors: from conventionally parameterized, to super-parameterized, and even cloud resolving. One thing each of these AGCMs have in common is that turbulence and boundary layer clouds are not resolved in any of them. This presentation will discuss how turbulence is currently treated in each of these breeds of AGCMs, as well as work being done, through use of the so-called assumed-PDF method, to ameliorate long-standing biases/issues related to turbulence in conventional and super-parameterized AGCMs, with a focus on the GCMs of the future.